Comment 22288

By kevlahan (registered) | Posted May 01, 2008 at 14:09:33

I'm not quite sure why Jason is pushing the smaller 'modern streetcars' rather than full LRT.

As the photo from Grenoble in Wilson's Spec interview shows, even a long 44m Citadis car can fit into very small streets since it is not very wide (2.4m) and has 7 articulated sections (which allows it to negotiate tight corners). The modern streetcars Jason mentions are 80ft = 24m which is MUCH small than the full-size LRT.

Since operating costs are similar for smaller and larger vehicles (the major cost is the salary of the driver), Hamilton should go for full-size from the start. If a 44m articulated vehicle can fit the narrow winding historic centres of European cities, they can definitely fit Main St!

This is an important point since the 300 passenger capacity we've used at Hamilton Light Rail is based on full-size LRT.

We don't want to make the mistake of building infrastructure for short modern streetcars and then discover that the platforms are not long enough when we need to scale up. Vancouver fell into this trap with skytrain (initially called ALRT: automated light rapid transit). The platforms are not long enough to meet current demand.

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